Inside Tracks #31: "Rosecrans Boulevard" by Jimmy Webb, 1967-5th Dimension, w/Covers by Johnny Rivers, Gordon Waller, Zumpano
A 21-year-old Oklahoman turns out to be a songwriting genius. Has anyone stopped to wonder how artists and producers, at the time, could recognize that fact when given such perplexing material?
Inspired by a tip from of Substack’s “Earnestness is Underrated,” and he is to be hugely thanked!
“Rosecrans Boulevard” aka Rosecrans Avenue is a major west-east thoroughfare in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in southern California. It has a total length of 27.5 miles (44.3 km).
The street was named after U.S. Union General William S. Rosecrans, who purchased 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) of Rancho Sausal Redondo southwest of Los Angeles in 1869. Rosecrans Avenue begins at the beach near El Porto in Manhattan Beach. On its route, it crosses through Manhattan Beach, and other cities.
It’s likely Jimmy Webb, newly-arrived as an 18-year-old in 1964 from Oklahoma, referred to the Avenue as a “boulevard” for sonically lyrical reasons; it may have just “sounded better.”
The 5th Dimensions’ debut album, released in April 1967, was recorded at Hollywood’s Sound Recorders, and produced by Marc Gordon and Johnny Rivers on Rivers’ Soul City Records, distributed by Liberty Records. Virtually the whole of The Wrecking Crew was present, including Joe Osborne (bass), Hal Blaine (drums), Tommy Tedesco (guitar), Larry Knechtel (keys), and Webb, who also played keyboards, and arranged and conducted!
It took Johnny Rivers just two months to cover the song himself (see below)!
From 1962 to 1965, Marc Gordon headed up Motown’s L.A. office, after which he became a personal manager, and took on The Versatiles. He changed their name to the 5th Dimension and got them signed to Rivers’ Soul City label.
Webb earned a songwriter’s Grammy for “Up, Up, and Away,” and Gordon and Rivers each won a producer’s Grammy for Record of the Year (for “Up, Up, and Away”) in 1968. The following year, Gordon married 5th Dimension singer, Florence LaRue.
Randall Roberts, in the January 19, 2018 Los Angeles Times: “It’s not a boulevard, it’s an avenue, but other than that, famed songwriter Webb accurately conveys what one stretch of Rosecrans might have been like in the mid-1960s.
“First recorded by the Fifth Dimension, the song traces a narrative that begins as the narrator drives south on ‘that long freeway toward San Diego,’ presumably Interstate 5. His memory of a woman he calls ‘Rosecrans Boulevard’ is stirred by an exit sign: ‘One night on Manhattan Beach I said things that moved too fast to suit her,’ he sings. ‘Then I held her close and dried her tears.’
Singer, Billy Davis, Jr. (5th Dimension, the first artists to record “Rosecrans Boulevard”), from PopMatters, June 2010: “It was like 12:30 or one o’clock in the morning. One of those times when people are home and it’s just the nighttime. It’s eerie. So many people come up to us and ask us about ‘Requiem: 820 Latham’ (a Webb composition on 5D’s second album, The Magic Garden), and say, ‘What is he saying?” We explain it to them and they say, ‘Oh I got it.’
“There’s another song that he did (on their 1967 debut Up, Up and Away album, where 5 of the 11 songs were Webb compositions) called ‘Rosecrans Blvd.’ You talk about poetic…you’d have to do a story just on that! When he was telling me this story, I looked at him and said to myself, ‘But you’re just 20 years-old! How do you come up with this stuff?’ It sounds like a guy who’s been in the world awhile.”
Bandmate, Marilyn McCoo (who married Davis in 1969): “That is the genius of Jimmy Webb. We labored to get those notes right and he wouldn’t accept anything less.”
Davis: “One of the great things about his songs is that they were so well put together musically that a lot of people thought they were simple. It sounded simple but they were hard. Even today, when people play ‘Up, Up and Away,’ they hear and they think, ‘That’s easy’, but then they start trying to play it and go, ‘What is this?’”
McCoo: “He’s a genius and anybody who loves music and loves the best songwriting is going to appreciate Jimmy Webb.”
Jimmy Webb’s “Rosecrans Boulevard,” 1967:
I've passed a lot of exit signs in my time
While drivin’ down that long freeway
To San Diego, and parts south
But there was a time last summer
When I came down from Manhattan
And though I knew I shouldn’t, it was just too hard
And I made my move at Rosecrans Boulevard
Rosecrans Boulevard, stop your calling me
You know I never loved her anyway
I just used her
Over and over
But there were times when she laughed and I think I loved her
One night on Manhattan Beach I said things that moved too fast to suit her
Then I held her close and dried her tears
Rosecrans Boulevard, who cares what you think
The girl was half crazy, the way she drove her little car down Sunset Boulevard
At three in the morning doing ninety miles an hour in a thirty mile zone
And blamed me when she got a ticket
But then there was that smile
It was really what made all the airlines go
She was a stewardess, you know
Shot down on a non-combatant mission
And though I pity it
Every time I drive my car past Rosecrans Boulevard
I wonder why I did it
Johnny Rivers, 1967
In June 1967, Johnny Rivers entered the studio to lay down his own “Rosecrans” on his Rewind album on Imperial/Liberty Records. Lou Adler produced, with the same Wrecking Crew members as he employed on the 5D sessions two months before: Blaine, Knechtel, and Osborne, with Mike Deasy and himself on guitar, with Webb writing liner notes, and arranging and conducting again.
Toto keyboardist, David Paich’s dad, Marty Paich, conducted and arranged the strings and horns on four tracks.
[Johnny Rivers’] “‘Rosecrans Boulevard’ showcases superb vocal harmonies and horn playing.”—Zach Curd, Allmusic.com
Gordon Waller with Geoff Love and his Orchestra, January 1968
Little-heard in the U.S. (it was only a single release in UK and Denmark in 1968), this was the first post-Peter and Gordon release by Waller after four years of hits (with Peter Asher) in the wake of The British Invasion. Produced by veteran composer/producer, Norrie Paramor, Waller released his single on Columbia Records (an EMI property in the UK at the time).
Zumpano, January 24, 1995
Zumpano has been described as a “Canadian power pop band” that was around only long enough to produce two albums and two singles on Seattle’s Sub Pop Records from 1992-1996. The band consisted of vocalist/guitarist Carl Newman, keyboardist Michael Ledwidge, bassist Stefan Niemann, and drummer Jason Zumpano.
From Zumpano’s debut Look What the Rookie Did album (Sub Pop, worldwide, 1995), the band employed Kevin Kane to produce “Rosecrans Boulevard” and seven of the record’s eleven tracks.
On Zumpano’s Look What the Rookie Did album, Robin Platts on Allmusic.com: “The group’s original material is outstanding, but the lone cover proves to be one of the album’s highlights -- a compelling version of Jimmy Webb’s ‘Rosecrans Boulevard’. With Webb as an influence, it’s no wonder Zumpano end up crafting such sophisticated yet melodic compositions of their own.”
Inasmuch as he was the one who first turned me onto the song (on January 17, 2024, nearly 30 years to the day after Zumpano recorded their cover), I asked Nick of “Earnestness is Underrated” (pictured above) how he discovered the song and what he likes about it:
Nick: “I got a copy as a gift from my brother, in the late ‘90s or early 2000s, and the songs were all immediately catchy and also mysterious. ‘Rosecrans Boulevard’ stood out as catchier, more mysterious, and sounding distinct from the rest of the album.
“I knew it was a cover but, at the time, I couldn’t find much information on it -- there weren’t any other versions available on YouTube, and I could read the lyrics, but that didn’t reveal much.
“Look What The Rookie Did was fairly recent at the time, but it had that feel of an album slightly out of time, and this cover of a ‘60s song is a perfect example. The song grabs me from the opening notes; it’s a perfect pop song that’s not in a rush, but you can’t wait to hear where it’s going.
“It’s clear that it’s a song about something that’s gone wrong (at least a relationship, perhaps more). The opening line, ‘I’ve passed a lot of exit signs’ suggests the possibility of having turned off before the accident, or is it just about the feeling of driving down the freeway and being in motion and bored at the same time?
“It feels like the song begins obliquely because he’s circling around a painful topic, but it feels like it could open up at any moment and become raw and direct.
“When it gets to the lines, ‘Then there was that smile / It was really what made all the airlines go / She was a stewardess, you know / Shot down on a non-combatant mission,’ it feels intense and like we’re getting to the emotional core of the memories, and then . . . the song just ends shortly after that. It never resolves any of his feelings. We’re left knowing that he’s shared something important, but it’s not quite clear what, and I can’t wait to go back to the beginning and listen to it again.”
More “Inside Tracks” with Jimmy Webb:
Thanks for an informative and fascinating post Brad. If you only learned of the song yesterday I only learned of it today - though I am not going to suddenly write an enormous post about it! I am not sure if these are your word or you are quoting someone else (there's a quotation mark at tyhe start of the paragraph but not later).... My sense is that Rosencrans Boulevard is not meant to be a person but it is what it is and has an inextricable pull on the composer. Which is very powerful in its own write/right. Thanks so much for sharing!
Wow I absolutely loved this Brad, although that’s never a surprise when it comes to your work. I’d never heard this song before and it’s gorgeous. I appreciate the deep dive and the different versions which are all quite different and each lovely in their own way.
I thought I’d only ever heard Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In. But that’s only because I didn’t realize they also sang Up Up And Away. In the back of my mind I thought that was Nancy Sinatra, but only because in the early 2000s I saw a very late night airing of her “Moving With Nancy” TV special that included the track (https://youtu.be/1FfyVkKxO7w?si=k1kLkQ5aph5-dL_r).
Coincidentally, that particular track (the original 5D version) plays over the loudspeaker on the sidewalk opposite the TWA Hotel as you’re walking over from the Airtrain stop. It’s the PERFECT song for that hotel! I highly recommend a night staying there (or even just hanging out there for a few hours if you have a long layover at JFK) as it’s an awesome historical snapshot with suitably cheesy decor (I mean that in a good way) and wonderful exhibits in the public spaces.